Chinese boxing star Zou Shiming trains with Freddie Roach. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese boxing star Zou Shiming (7-1, 2 KOs) is set for his USA debut against a young fighter from Hungary, Jozsef Ajtai, on Saturday at the fabled Madison Square Garden in New York.
It would be the eighth bout in the career of the late-blooming WBO International Flyweight champion, who started fighting professionally when he was already 32 years old in 2013.
The 35-year-old Zou, who is also a two-time Olympic gold medal winner when he took them during the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London games, had fought his first seven fights at the Venetian Macao in Macau before holding his most recent one at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in mainland China in January of this year.
Not known for being a knockout puncher, Zou finished his latest match in stunning fashion as he pulled off an eighth round TKO victory over Brazil's Natan Santana Countinho, only the second knockout win of his career, to claim the vacant WBO International Flyweight belt.
Xinhuanet reported that the Guizhou, China native is aiming to accumulate US exposure to pursue a world title soonest. His current promoters, Bob Arum's Top Rank, said that a win this summer would make Zou qualify for a world title fight as early as this autumn.
Zou will be matched against a virtual unknown in Ajtai, who said to have a record of 15 wins and two loses including 10 knockouts. The Hungarian also won five of his last six fights, which means that the three-time World Amateur Championships winner should not take him lightly.
Sports Chat Place noted that the 19-year-old Ajtai, who is also about to box in his first fight in the US, has collected much experienced even though he just begun fighting professionally last year.
The teenager allegedly "bullied his way through his home country" and will take this fight with Zou as an opportunity to beat a known fighter.
Ajtai is coming off a second round knockout loss to Welsh boxer Andrew Selby in November of last year at the City Academy Sports Centre in Bristol, England, which was considered as the worst defeat of the Hungarian's young career.
It took a few months before Ajtai could recover and now he is slated to fight with Zou this weekend.
